Cave of Tigers: Modern Zen Encounters

One can know all and still be empty. Chasing down books of Zen and trying out mantras and koans make it seem like a course to be taken in school. This is the first work I have found that really reveals day-to-day Zen for commoners. I was lost in the Catskills several years ago, and lo and behold, there was a Zen monastery before me. A year later, the title A Cave of Tigers caught my eye. This book recounts dharma combat that occurred at the very same place in the Catskills. This is a part of Zen training where students and teachers confront each other and explore their grasp of all-around Zen. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of Zen teaching, but the conversations often get quite far from this. Some of the exchanges are silly and others are profound to the point of dropping the book from your hands. There is no linearity, here. One can open the book anywhere and read. It's tremendous. Some comments are amusing. Many are confusing in a helpful, thought-provoking way. One young lady actually disrobes, but only imagination adds visuals. This is far beyond books that discuss cushions and sitting postures and ox-herding pictures, though these are all fine. Zen is everyday and everywhere. Its simplicity and purity render it as nothing unusual. This book acts as a teacher in how Zen is in our lives and that sometimes washing your bowl--really washing--is all that there is to it. Between this book and Snow Leopard, Zen becomes real.

For many new students investigating Zen Buddhist practice, the dialogues of ancient Zen students with their teachers - many of which are cited in cases known as "koans" - seem inscrutable. CAVE OF TIGERS is a wonderful gift to us. It records public dialogues (or "dharma combat") between students of contemporary master John Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery in New York State. The dialogues are dynamic, spontaneous, and full of the spirit of moment-to-moment practice with a keen-eyed teacher. It demonstrates that the koan is nothing other than our life, now.